Quick Hits: Atchison, Rapada, D’Backs, McLouth

Indians pitcher Scott Atchison, 38, has himself a new deal which gave manager Terry Francona a meatball of a joke setup. “What’d they give him?” Francona asked reporters, including Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “A year, an option, and an AARP card?” More from around baseball..

MLBTR (Twitter link) has learned that Clay Rapada will take 2-3 weeks to let his injured ankle heal before pursuing his next contract. The left-hander struggled with the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate in large part due to that bad ankle. Rapada had a 5.63 ERA in 38 1/3 Triple-A innings this season, a far cry from the 2.82 ERA he posted in 2012 for the Yankees.

The Diamondbacks’ record $115MM payroll isn’t a one-time thing, but rather a sign of what’s to come, president/CEO Derrick Hall tells Jack Magruder of FOX Sports Arizona. “It is safe to say it will be $100MM-plus,” Hall said of the payroll for next year. “We definitely want to be close to where we were. Will we get to $115MM? I don’t know. But I don’t know if that is necessary.”

The Nationals announced that outfielder Nate McLouth will undergo surgery on Thursday to repair the labrum in his right shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season. McLouth, 33 in October, signed a two-year, $10.75MM deal with the Nats in December that contains a club option for a third season valued at $6.5MM.

A.J. Burnett was on the hill tonight for the Phillies and even though he lost, he’s got a reason to smile. As Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (on Twitter) notes, tonight was his 27th start of the season, which bumped his player option from $8.5MM to $10MM. With 30 total starts, he can bump that number to $11.75MM. If he reaches 32 starts, that number goes to $12.75MM.

Yup, they make those guys untradeable too when they hand them those limited no-trade clauses. It’s like they want to be unable to trade these guys to teams that have all the prospects such as Kansas City or Seattle.

AJ looking more appealing to prospective suitors by the minute. I have to say I don’t understand RA’s thinking on this. Burnett’s not particularly good anymore, but he’s serviceable at the back of a rotation. He should have been traded for a useful part, even if some money had to go along with him.

What was the point in Burnett’s player option? It’s hard to see any team other than the Phillies offering him that large of a one year deal anyway seeing as he only wanted to play close to home. I’d fire Amaro just for that nonsense.